Todd Neiss of Oregon was witness to three Bigfoot in 1993 in Oregon while on military duty.

He recounted his encounter and agreed to share it here with the readers of Cryptomundo.

I have personally met Todd and found him to be a great guy. I had the pleasure of giving him a ride from the Columbus, OH airport to the Ohio Bigfoot Conference back in 2001.

Below is Todd’s story.

Few moments in life have such a dramatic impact on a person’s life that it classifies as an ‘epiphany’, a moment where one’s concept of reality itself is utterly and permanently altered. Such a moment happened to me one sunny day in early spring of 1993. April 3rd was a day which is, and will always be, seared in my mind as if it were yesterday. Even after more than 14 years, the specifics of that event should illustrate the impact it had on my life.

It should be noted that, with regard to even the possibility of these creatures existing, I was beyond skeptical. Simply put, I had relegated these beasts to the realm of Native American legend or merely a classic campfire tale to freak out young, gullible children. I rarely watched sci-fi programs and never had read a single book on the subject. Ironically, as fate would have it, I would later become the topic of many such programs and books. I digress.

As a sergeant in Charlie Company (1249th Combat Engineers), it was business as usual as we headed up into the dense temperate rain forest of the Coast Range in Northwestern Oregon. The mission of Combat Engineering can be boiled down to two words: ‘mobility’ & ‘counter-mobility’. In other words, ensure our troops overcome any obstacles (man made or natural) and deny the enemy passage (or route them to where we want them) by placing obstacles in their path. On that particular day, our mission was to conduct training on private timberland near Saddle Mountain; just east of the coastal resort town of Seaside. We would be executing demolitions (explosives) operations at three rock quarries. Each site had a unique battle scenario to accomplish.

At the first site, we practiced ‘cutting charges’. This is where we would use plastic explosives (composition four or C4) to shear steel I-beams like a hot knife through butter in an effort to simulate dropping a bridge. Simultaneously, we also cut a five foot diameter Douglas Fir tree in half by wrapping a belt of C4 around it. Both charges were a resounding success! One sheared steel I-beam looking like an exploded cartoon cigar and a whole lot-o-bark dust.

The second site held a ‘complex obstacle’ consisting of a field of surface-laid anti-tank mines followed by a triple-strand concertina wire fence. We were to clear a vehicle lane through both. In addition, we were tasked to construct a field-expedient ‘claymore’ anti-personnel mine out of a #10 coffee can with improvised shrapnel. After securing the area and checking for subterranean mines, we strung a ‘ring-main’ (a circuit of detonation or DET cord) through the mine field. DET cord looks similar to fuse cord with the exception that it contains a tremendously explosive compound (PETN or Pentrite) which burns at a consistent rate of 8,000 meters per second. It is said that if you could string a line of DET cord from LA to New York, it would take approximately 14 minutes to get to the other end! It is essentially used to synchronize several explosive devices to detonate virtually simultaneously. You definitely do NOT want to confuse DET cord with fuse cord! In any event, my squad set about placing C4 charges next to each of the anti-tank mines and tying them into the ring-main while another squad began fashioning a field-expedient (read: homemade) version of a ‘Bangalore Torpedo’ to breach the razor-wire obstacle. Normally a Bangalore Torpedo is essentially a 3″ plastic pipe filed with C4. Sections of this pipe are generally fitted together to form a pipe long enough to breach the entire obstacle. In this case we had to sandwich C4 between sections of U-channel fence pickets then wrap them together with duct tape (same effect). The homemade ‘Bangalore’ was then tied into the ring-main. Lastly we constructed our field-expedient claymore mine by poking a hole in the bottom of a #10 can and inserted a blasting cap. Next we lined the bottom of the can with about 2.5lbs of C4 then covered it with three layers of cardboard for wadding. Finally, we loaded the can with rocks, bolts, nuts and anything else that would ruin the ‘enemy’s’ day. The can was then buried into a hillside (pointed towards the enemy) and angled about 12 degrees off the ground then it too was tied into the ring-main.

While I had not yet seen these creatures, there was a brief incident which, in retrospect, made me think they may have seen us. While I was directing my squad to emplace their charges next to the anti-tank mines, there was a rather loud, crescendoing ‘WHOOOOP!’ that emanated from the west end of the mine field. At that moment, I was bent over placing my own charge. Upon hearing this somewhat shrill noise, I immediately stood up and sought out the perpetrator as we were under orders to practice noise discipline during the exercise (in case the ‘enemy’ were nearby). As I glanced around the mine field, I was surprised to find all of my men still busily preparing their changes and not, as I suspected, goofing off. I shrugged my shoulders and went back to work. In hindsight, it seemed to me that the WHOOOOP sound had came from farther back in the tree line. But that made no sense as everyone was present and accounted for.

Once all of the charges were set and the area was cleared, I yelled “FIRE IN THE HOLE!,” then pulled the dual-primed M-60 fuse igniters. The fuses hissed and began snaking their way towards their primary charge while we mounted up and began to convoy down to the safety staging area to await the ‘report’ of the explosion a short eight minutes away.

At that moment, we developed radio problems. The field commander could not reach the base commander back at Camp Rilea. I was tasked to take my HMMVE (‘Humvee’) up to the top of a nearby hill, where we had a ‘two-niner-two’ radio relay station set up, to see what the problem was. Upon arrival, they had already repaired the relay, so I decided to watch the impending explosion from that vantage point. Even from two miles away, the sight of 200lbs of C4 detonating is an awesome sight. The huge flash was followed by an even bigger black cloud which began to build into a mushroom cloud. Simultaneously you could see the trees in the immediate vicinity shudder in succession as a shock wave rolled across the forest below in a perfect concentrical ring. Finally, about a two seconds later, we heard the BOOM! Another resounding success.

The third and last training area was situated in yet another gravel quarry on a hillside that overlooked the second blast site. Here our mission was to emplace a ‘cratering charge’. As the name implies, this type of operation involves the making of a rather large hole. Generally this is done to sever a road thus denying the enemy use thereof. To the uninitiated, an explosion is an explosion. To those of us who deal in the science of explosives, there are very distinct differences based upon the target, its composition, type of explosive (dynamite, C3, C4, ammonium nitrate, PETN, TNT, RDX, etc.), amount of explosive, its placement, shape of the charge, tamping, etc. Whereas C4 produces a super-hot/fast explosion, ammonium nitrate (essentially refined chicken or pig manure) soaked in diesel fuel for several hours, results in a ‘slow’ concussive blast. Properly placed and tamped, it will effortlessly relocate a generous section of real estate. It should be noted that, absent a standard issue shaped charge, we had the ‘heavy junk’ (read: heavy equipment) section pre-dig a starter hole with a backhoe. After emplacing several bags of diesel-soaked ammonium nitrate into the aforementioned hole, we (read: privates) filled it in and tap danced on it to tamp (pack) the charge. Once again, the area was cleared, and I initiated the dual-primed M-60 fuse igniters. I took my place in the waiting convoy and, per S.O.P., we began the descent down to the safety staging area.

Being a squad leader, I had the privilege of having my own Hummer, complete with a driver and an A (alternate) driver. Ours was the second vehicle of a five-vehicle convoy (2 Humvees up front, 2 covered troop carriers called ‘deuce and a halfs’ and the Commander’s Humvee in the rear). I took up a position behind the driver’s seat and, as we were descending the narrow winding road down towards the staging area, I had the opportunity to enjoy the scenery. As an avid hunter, it is just second nature to me to spot for wildlife. As it was a rare sunny day in April, I had my window unzipped for a better view. Rounding a corner, I had a good view of the rock quarry where we had done our second blast at less than an hour earlier. Standing right out in the open, in the middle of the gravel pit, were three, jet-black, bipedal creatures. They stood inline (shoulder to shoulder) staring directly at our convoy as it descended the hillside across from them. Between us was a ravine populated with eight to twelve year-old Douglas Fir and hemlock ‘reprod’. At a distance of several hundred meters, I could not make out facial features or gender, but there was no doubt what I was looking at were not humans. Had these creatures been standing in front of a backdrop of trees, I most likely would not have seen them at all. But in this case, there stood three dark black figures contrasted against a light grey cliff of basalt on a bright sunny day.

In the middle stood, what I assumed to be, the alpha male of the group; as it towered a full head above the two creatures that flanked it. I would estimate it to have stood approximately nine feet high, with the flanking creatures approaching seven feet in height. Their silhouette was unique in that their heads sat directly on their shoulders with no visible neck. They all displayed broad, square shoulders and barreled chests which tapered down to a svelte waistline, unlike the creature seen in the Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967 (for the record, I am of the impression that the PG creature was either pregnant or had recently been so; accounting for her girth). The arms of these beings hung well past their knees. In the case of the two flanking creatures, they were exhibiting a swaying motion (rocking side-to-side) as the larger creature stood as still as a statue. Bear in mind that, all the while I was staring at the creatures, we were bounding down a dirt road with the occasional hedge of blackberry and Scotch bloom obscuring my view. That being said, I had approximately 25 seconds of viewing time.

At this point most people ask me, “Didn’t anybody else see them?” “Why didn’t you say something to your driver(s)? or “Why didn’t stop your vehicle?

The answer is that

I assumed I alone had seen them;

I was still in shock and disbelief;

my jeep didn’t have a radio to call for a stop and

even if it did, we had a rather large BOMB ticking off behind us!

Once the vehicle rounded a sharp corner, I knew I had seen the last of them. I fell back into my seat with a mixture of shock for what I had witnessed and an odd sense of depression. It’s a hard to explain what goes through ones mind in such a moment. Fate had somehow came together to create a once-in-a-lifetime moment that was now lost as suddenly as it had found.

My head began to swim with questions.

“Oh my God! They DO exist! And not just a solitary beast, but a group of them!

How could they exist and not be ‘discovered’?

Having extensively hunting this area, how could they exist and I not have seen them, or signs of them, before? Some hunter!

What do I do now?”

I felt the sudden urge to tell someone,but who? I had seen something scientifically, if not historically, important and SOMEONE should be notified! There must be an authority that NEEDS this information!

I began to make a mental checklist.

The US Fish & Wildlife?No.
The Forest Service? No.
The zoo? No.
The police? HELL NO!

Then WHO?!?! And better yet, who would believe me anyway?

In the final analysis, I reluctantly decided (like most people do) to keep my mouth shut. Here I was a family man, a vice-president of a shipping company, and a Non-Commissioned Officer in the Army National Guard. I had worked long and hard for my reputation. And yet, with one simple sentence, “I saw Bigfoot!”, I could throw it all away. Nope. If I knew what was good for me, I could never tell a soul.

Thus is the curse of the Bigfoot: living with the burden of the truth. A truth so absolutely incredible that merely suggesting that you ‘might’ have seen something that ‘may’ have been a Bigfoot will cause people to question your very sanity and even destroy your reputation. Great! I have jokingly suggested that I should start a Bigfoot Support Group for those afflicted with ‘the curse’. One thing I can say, from years of interviewing other eyewitnesses, that there is something therapeutic in sharing such mutual experiences.

Arriving at the staging area, I immediately jogged back up the road in a futile effort to get one more look at these amazing creatures. Unfortunately there was a knoll which blocked my view of the gravel pit. Again an odd sense of depression swept over me. I felt a genuine sense of loss that was difficult to explain.

My activity hadn’t gone unnoticed. Suddenly I heard footsteps heading my way. Then a voice yelled out, “Hey Neiss!” I turned and saw SGT Jeff Martin heading my direction. As he approached me, he looked over his shoulder to see if he was being followed. Satisfied that we were alone, he said something that I will never forget. He took a long drag off of his cigarette, exhaled, looked me squarely in the eyes and said, “I don’t suppose you saw what I saw back at the second blast site?” It was more of a statement than a question. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he knew something. I felt overwhelmed at the possibility but decided to err on the side of caution. I replied, “I don’t know Jeff, what did YOU see?” Once again he looked left then right to make certain of our privacy and then stated rather matter-of-factly, “I saw three, huge, hair-covered, for lack of a better word ‘BIGFEET’.

Trying to contain my excitement I hissed, “Yesssss! I saw them too!”

I was overwhelmed with sense of utter relief! I wasn’t alone!! It wasn’t that I needed validation of what I had seen. Corroboration could not have altered the truth, but it sure felt good. It felt somehow liberating. At that we began to compare notes.

Fate was busy that day. What were the odds? The odds that I ever would have seen them in the first place? The odds that someone else did (independently) as well? The odds that they would have even imagined that I had shared their experience and even in so considering would have had the courage to ask me? I can only guess that observing me looking in the direction of the quarry and straining to get a glimpse of ‘something’ was enough to pique his curiosity. Thank God! And finally, what were the odds that we were the only two witnesses? As I would come to later learn, we weren’t!

That evening, we had an ‘open post’ so I decided to stay the night at the home of my friend (and Platoon Sergeant) Don Braden and his wife Lena. After debating whether to tell them my story, I reluctantly opened up (few beers didn’t hurt either). Being my first ‘Bigfoot confession’, I found out the hard way that even your best friends can be hard to convert. After some initial ridicule, I had to settle for a bit of patronizing sympathy. This wasn’t to be my last bout with ridicule.

Fate wasn’t quite done yet. At the next Guard drill, Lena Braden and the other wives and girlfriends of soldiers were conducting a bake sale in the foyer of the armory at Camp Rilea as was their custom. I, on the other hand, was split-training in Portland some 100 miles east. Lena was in the middle of sharing my ‘Bigfoot confession’ with the other ladies when two soldiers entered the building. As they passed the bake sale table, they happened to overhear Lena describing my encounter, then froze in their tracks. They turned to her and asked her to repeat the story then both confessed to having seen the creatures as well!

A lot has transpired since that fateful day. It has been my personal mission to provide irrefutable evidence of these amazing creatures existence in an effort to gain their recognition and, if need be, play a role in their protection. I have spent countless days and nights conducting field research (including six major expeditions) throughout the Pacific Northwest, California and one foray into the Mazetzal Wilderness of Arizona. My quest has given me the privilege to meet and/or work with some of the top researchers in the field: Peter Byrne, the late Rene Dahinden, John Green, the late Professor Grover Krantz (a.k.a. ‘The Four Horseman’), Bob Gimlin, Loren Coleman, Don Keating, the late Richard Greenwell, Larry Lund, Dr. Jeff Meldrum, Cliff Crook, Chris Murphy, Dan Perez, Joe Beelart, Ray Crowe, Dr. Wolf Henner Farenbach, Rick Noll, Thom Powell, Cliff Olson and the late Fred Bradshaw to name just a few. I thank them all for their generous insight, advice and companionship. Over the past 14 years, I have had the honor of appearing on more than 19 television programs, several radio talk shows, and given speeches at numerous symposiums and colleges. Bigfooting will always be a part of my life and I look forward to many more adventures in the future.SGT Todd M. Neiss

About Craig WoolheaterCo-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.

He mentioned the Patterson-Gimlin film in somewhat great detail. Goes against what he mentioned earlier about having little to no exposure to the subject. I can only assume he became interested in P&G after the sighting.

See why I think the sightings are the most compellng evidence for the sasquatch?

If you don’t, multiply this account by a thousand or so; add in all the eyewitnesses in sightings where more than just the reporter obviously saw the animals; and then try to imagine all the ones who have just kept their mouths shut.

It starts to look as if mainstream science is the last bastion of ignorance on this topic, don’t it? C’mon, admit it.

I always look for small, seemingly inconsequential items in sighting reports, descriptive comments that an “average” person might not include in the account if they weren’t really there, because they had never heard of such a thing.

Early UFO reports occasionally included “falling leaf” maneuvers, a strong hint that the tale was real, because who ever heard of aircraft performing in that manner (dead stall) and recovering to fly away?

Todd’s description includes one such item and, while any intelligent and articulate witness (or tale-teller) might have stuck it into the story for veracity, most readers wouldn’t know how rare and important it is.

“In the case of the two flanking creatures, they were exhibiting a swaying motion (rocking side-to-side) as the larger creature stood as still as a statue.”

I’ve rarely seen this “swaying” comment in reports, the first time in PA, when two creatures were spotted standing in a cave-mouth, swaying in unison, their long, reddish-brown hair blowing to the side in the winter breeze.

The witnesses, two senior women, had stopped their car to enjoy the beauty of snowflakes falling into a shallow valley, when they spotted the dynamic duo surveying their car from less than a hundred feet away.

These two ladies, in my opinion, would never have concocted this tale, especially including the details, on their own, in Pennsylvania, in 1978.

Todd’s report, including the early 1994 date, plus the “Whooop!”, no-neck, color, second-witness and hearsay confirmation from two additional witnesses, PLUS the casual “swaying” tidbit, all lend this account credibility.

The swaying got me too – because it’s something I see in a number of reports, not rarely.

I presume that sighters that file reports aren’t comparing notes. (Call me naive. But I’ve never been a fan of conspiracy theory.) When an animal is seen standing “still,” that swaying motion has a tendency to show up in the report.

I look for tendencies, things that recur in report after report after report. Most of the major aspects of this animal, both its appearance and its behavior, tend to do that – which is why I sound like such a broken record on the critical importance of the visual evidence.

Although this is one of the best I’ve read, sighting reports are important en bloc, not individually. It’s the patterns that count.

I on the other hand have seen several “swaying” statements in reports and find it to be a main identifier for BF.

I do like demo as much as the next guy but I fail to see the need for several para’s of blast descriptions. JMO

It would be great if Craig could get a hold of the guy that saw a BF while he and his buddy were hunting off of their 4 wheelers. He stopped to eat and his buddy scouted ahead. The BF thinking that they had both passed stepped out from the tree line to cross the clearing. I believe this was reported over at BFRO last year.

Fuzzy, that was really quite a brilliant observation. Interesting about the reports of swaying as it is not something I had really noticed in the reports nor thought of as all that important at first. But of course on further thought, it is a perfect little detail that helps to corroborate eyewitness accounts. It is not a big enough detail that people would be influenced by the iconic image of Bigfoot, yet it is important enough to be mentioned and obscure enough that one wouldn’t expect people sharing this detail around to bogusly put into their testimony. It is such a seemingly arbitrary, yet consistent detail that it further shows to me that if two people saw the same type of creature and both displayed this swaying behavior, then it adds to the plausibility that different people are indeed seeing a real creature.

Great story, and like DWA, I too think these reports amount to what for me is the best evidence. The context seems so right.
I am curious as to whether we’re expected to think that this small band of creatures were presumably in the blast area.

Great article on Todd Neiss, Craig. He has always had one of the more believable accounts, one I would rank up there with Dr. Matthew Johnson’s, Bob Gimlin’s and William Roe’s. I have seen him on several programs, including “Unsolved Mysteries,” and also read his account in Ray Crowe’s newsletter “The Track Record,” and it has never wavered, never changed. I think it is very telling that he did not automatically think that it was 3 Bigfoot creatures he saw, and really didn’t put that together until he talked to another witness who corroborated his story. I remember Peter Byrne had theorized that the creatures were nocturnal, and that the only reason they were seen was because of disturbance of some kind. Obviously, with a National Guard exercise, with explosions, if they are truly nocturnal, they were woken up and disturbed. I remember that Todd had said that he thought they might have been bears at first, but then he said he saw them shuffling back and forth on two feet and were doing so the whole time he was watching them. I’d love to see his story given more airtime somewhere on a documentary or even a movie. It has always been very compelling and worth some scrutiny. Of course, I realize that eyewitness testimony is of no use to skeptics or in a court of law, but Neiss’ story is worthy of further consideration. Excellent article, Craig!!!

Indeed, an interesting story. What I find more interesting that these creatures were spotted around highly disturbing activities of military detonations and other routine drills. Most normal animals would clear the hell out of the area by many many miles. The SAS is such a curious creature with contradictory nature. On one hand very shy and elusive. But on the other attracted by moving vehicles and not so intimidated by human’s destructive technology.

First off…thank you for your kind words. Now to address your comments.

joppa writes: Did he ever go back to the area and look for foot prints?Yes…many times. After we finished the last blast (cratering charge), we were tasked to return to the second site to 1) inspect our carnage and 2) to clean up the mess. In the process, SGT Martin and I made a b-line up the bluff to where we saw the creatures standing specifically to look for tracks. Unfortunately, being a rock quarry, the entire ground consisted of crushed gravel (not too conducive to taking a track).

That being said, I got in touch with The Bigfoot Research Project (TBRP) headed by Peter Byrne. They were interested in investigating the site. I told them that they would need to get permission from Cavenham Forest Products. The next thing I know, Peter Bynes hands me a master key to all of the gates throughout their property (don’t ask me how). The key would serve me well over the next four years prior to Willamette Industries acquisition. I had unfettered private access to one of the best research areas until then. In any event, Peter Byrne and his associate Todd Deary visited the site twice. In both cases, tracks were found.

On the first anniversary of my sighting, I organized my first expedition dubbed “Operation: Entice Contact.” I figured if these creatures were migratory, than that would be a good time to be there. My partner, Mike Freeman, and I spent eight days up there. We discovered more tracks and other evidence, but no sighting.

On the second anniversary, I organized a second expedition (aptly named “Operation: Entice Contact II or EC2 for short). Since the quarry had begun active mining operations, we opted to set up our base camp on the southern flank of Saddle Mountain…about four miles east of the original site. There we had a trailer, night-vision cameras, trail cameras, baiting stations, seismic ground sensors, a biopsy dart gun, radios, two 4×4 quads, aircraft, etc. When I say “we” I am talking about Peter Byrne, Ron Morehead (of “Sierra Sounds” fame), Woody Woodworth and the late Fred Bradshaw. Over the course of eight days we found tracks, broken tree tops, and had a couple of definite vocal events (one which nearly gave me a heart attack).

Over the years, I gathered the courage to visit the site alone. Since I was at the coast once a month for Guard drill, I began to make monthly visits to leave bait in a manner taught to me by Dr. Henner Farenbach. It was placed in such a way that no other animal could get to it. For nine consecutive months the bait was not only taken, but the container itself was no where to be found.

To this day, I believe the Saddle Mountain area is one of the best research areas I have found.

loyalfromlondon asks, “So did the final blast blow up the bigfoot?”

The answer would be no as the creatures were located at the 2nd site…a safe distance from the 3rd and last site. However, I wonder to this day if any of them were killed or injured at the 2nd blast site.

loyalfromlondon continues, “He mentioned the Patterson-Gimlin film in somewhat great detail. Goes against what he mentioned earlier about having little to no exposure to the subject.”

As I clearly stated in my article, my research has been a result of my encounter. Prior to that, I had no idea who Patterson or Gimlin were. I merely mentioned the PG film for comparison. For the record, I have visited the PG site on two occasions and on one of those visits, had the privilege of doing so with Bob Gimlin himself.

fuzzy, DWA & raisinsofwrath comment on the swaying activity I observed. I discussed this at length with Dr. Wolf Henner Farenbach (primatologist and BF researcher). Henner told me that such behavior is quite common in primates and is generally associated with demonstration (agitation) and/or anxiety. I have ran across numerous such accounts and consider them more credible than others as it is not the kind of description most hoaxers would think to add.

dogu4 asks, “I am curious as to whether we’re expected to think that this small band of creatures were presumably in the blast area.”

I guess that depends on your definition of “blast area” Obviously they were in the vicinity and could well have been within casualty range at the second site. I have no doubt we rocked their world in any event. Whatever the case, their curiosity over came their fear enough to investigate the source of the commotion.

raisinsofwrath wrote, “I do like demo as much as the next guy but I fail to see the need for several para’s of blast descriptions. JMO”

The purpose for all of the detail was two-fold. First to show how the events of that day were so absolutely burned into my memory (don’t ask me what I did yesterday). Secondly, I felt the more detail I could add would only add more credibility to the account. No extra charge.

hey henry,craig, & everyone yes i totaly agree with your above replys as well regarding this now famous wonderful sasquatch encounter which i realy like reading it still. it would be neat to make a good movie or documentary about this sasquatch encounter just a good thought though. thanks bill green

Jeff Martin (now a Staff Sergeant) and I haven’t spoke in a long time. With one exception that I am aware of, he has chosen to take the “low road” when it comes to discussing his encounter. That one exception came back in the winter of 1993 when he and I spoke at Portland Community College for a class directed by Dr. Farenbach and Rip Lyttle.

As for the other two witnesses, I was never able to identify them. As I stated, on the month that Lena Braden spoke with the two soldiers in the foyer of the armory at Camp Rilea, I was away “split-training” at a class in Portland. It wasn’t until the following month’s drill that she informed me of the discussion. By that time, she was unable to identify the soldiers other than to say they both were wearing green (what can I say? She’s a true blonde). What I CAN say is that I had known her for nearly five years by then (including being the best man at their wedding) and am quite confident that she was telling the truth. My question is…if four soldiers acknowledged having seen them, how many other did and kept quiet?

Tozilla- Wow, thank you for your very thorough and concise reply to the questions that have been put forward to you. It sheds a lot of light on the events that transpired. Thanks for actually coming forward to address what the people here have been saying about the account.

Sorry, but I agree with DWA, I felt like I was reading a National Guard recruiting advertisement -sheesh. Once he got to the actual sighting and away from blowing things up, it is a good report and worth noting, but, a lot of editing would have gone a long way.

Thanks for sharing such an awesome experience. I too have had not one, but two sightings in my lifetime and I can tell you the reluctance of sharing such experiences with others while facing the possibility of being ridiculed. My experiences were worlds and years apart, one in the early 80’s in the North Cascades in Washington state and the other just a few years back in West Va. Both experiences were filled with excitement as well as a strange sense of depression as described by this gentlemen. It’s hard to explain, but its almost surreal. You feel euphoric in one sense and in utter disbelief in the other. After my second experience I no longer think or worry about what others might think of my sightings. Instead I feel very fortunate to have had these experiences. Thanks again for sharing.

Your integrity shines thru in your comments and further backs you up. While some wish they had never had an experience such as this I can tell that you appreciate your brush with BF no matter the consequence.

I was thinking of your story last night as I watched Survivorman (deep in the swamps of GA) and wondered what he might run into all alone in that dark swamp.

This gentleman is exactly what the bigfoot community needs. Someone who is trained as he is probably has a better chance of finding a bigfoot when he’s looking for it. I hope he has other “operations” in mind and maybe some of the reputable bigfoot groups could get together and fund one. Good luck!!

Now, I don’t want to say one way or another whether this report is true (Todd knows, we don’t).

It just struck me that all the details about the explosives etc made me believe it less, and i can’t really say why- it just seemed too self-conscious a way of trying to seem reliable a witness (in fact Todd says that he gave all the details so that he would seem a reliable witness). I know that is really unfair, because we are always criticizing reports as unreliable when they don’t provide background details. but it just seemed rather contrived to me.

While all the details of explosives et al add credibility that the witness really is an army man, and really was at the site doing what he said- what it doesn’t really do is add anything to the credibility of the report. In fact, in my opinion it really just distracts from the actual report. And when we strip out all the extraneous stuff here do we really have as great a report as everyone seems to think-

Todd hears a ‘whoop’, and later he sees three figures several hundred metres away while traveling very fast down a bumpy track, with his view often partially obscured.

Interesting, but hardly the greatest report ever.

Also, one thing struck me from the account, which perhaps Todd could explain-

While setting the explosives, Todd hears the ‘whoop’ which he immediately thinks is one of his men messing about- but he looks over, and sees that it isn’t; they are all working quietly at their tasks. But that’s it. he carries on and then sets off the explosives.

Now I don’t know anything about army procedure, but if you are laying explosives and you think you here someone shouting, don’t you at least check that some hiker/hunter/drunken teenage idiot hasn’t wandered into the danger area? I think i would.

Wow! That was a good story, I too worked with the same stuff when I was in the Army. Look guys when you a working with this stuff you have to keep your mind on your work or you could easily turn a good day into a realy bad one. I think his story is crediable.

1) I believe that the more detail is in the report the more likely it is to be accurate. As Todd says: don’t ask him what he did yesterday. But this day didn’t stick because he saw a bear. The reports that make me go hmmmm the most are invariably – also, this isn’t what necessarily distinguishes them, but it seems always there – the ones with the most detail; the ones that have me smelling hoax from the git-go seem – also, this isn’t how I judge them, it’s just a consistent feature of them – to have very little detail.

2) I could never tell a witness to his face, even his cyberface, that he was lying. I mean, what’s my evidence? Was I there? That’s a plainly irrational presumption.

I too could have done without some of the explosive details, but merely because I was only really interested in what was actually seen (which was really interesting, follows along the idea that the animal might be sexually dimorphic).

I think this is due to the fact that this seems less meant to be read as a proper report but more as a detailed account of the sightings and the whole emotional experience surrounding it. More like a story for the majority of readers not interested in just the bare bones like we’re used to, which is fine.